Run

Tattoos

Who is that guy! I know I have seen him before, but where.

I lay face down again and wrap myself in a blanket. Okay, I know he is a guy, but that's about half the population. He has brown hair, but that's pretty much everyone...

It's that laugh though, I know I have heard that laugh before... Millions of times even.

I hear footsteps walk back again and sand crunch beneath feet. I hear the boys hustle into the tent and zip up the screen.

I lift up my head and look at Reece and oh my God, it's Percy. I know that short brown hair and deep brown eyes. His light, yet tan skin tone. And of course, the tattoo on his forearm. How did I not place his laugh to his face before!

"Quinn your up!" Reece says excitedly as Percy sits there in disbelief. "We thought you wern't going to make it..."

I struggle to sit up and grab the water bottle Reece tossed to the ground as he stepped in, but I don't have the strength to even twist open the cap.

Percy grabs the bottle from me and opens the cap before handing it back to me.

I go to take a sip, but Reece continues to talk, "how do you feel? You look like Hell."

"Thanks." I reply horsley. I take a sip and instantly begin to cough. I am choking so hard on this water and blood clumps fly out of my mouth.

"Woah, woah.... Okay Quinn, no more water for you!" Percy jokes, but I'm not joking, I can't catch my breath.

"Is that--" I cough some more, "salt water?" it hurts so bad to talk while coughing.

"Shit! Shit shit shit shit!" Reece shouts frustrated. "We ran out of fresh and had to fill up with the ocean water... Quinn, you can't drink this! We have to go find a faucet or something.."

"You need to go get some air." Percy suggests. I take his advice and unzip the tent and stick my head out and into the warm sand. I lay there and breath.

"We need to take out her bullet." I hear Percy whisper.

"I know, it'll get infected like mine if we don't..." Reece whispers back.

I turn back in, as I have stopped coughing, "I agree, take it out. I won't move." I say with a rasp in my voice. I pull off my shirt so they can see the raw skin and fall forward onto my stomach into the bloody blankets.

"Uhh, o...k..." Reece says glancing over at Percy. Percy knods, he too knows that it's best to remove it.

Percy takes out a large metal knife, something he probably had with him since I know we didn't have a knife. He hands it to Reece while shaking his head, he can't do it.

I can't watch this, I push my face down into the floor. I know they have started, as sharp shoots of pain like fire arise in my back.

My face feels stuck in a cringe position and I cry into the blanket.

I feel a slight slice of my skin that has started to heal over and they try to pinch out the bullet like it's a pimple.

It must've worked because they stop. I sit up all tear stained and pull my shirt back over my head.

"That's not a bullet." Percy says seriously while looking at it. "I have gone hunting with my dad a few times and I KNOW that this is in no way a bullet."

"Your right," Reece says, now examining it himself, "it's almost like a microchip for a computer or a phone or something..."

I sit up and look at it as well, "what do you think it is?" I ask.

"I don't know, but I do know that mine has to come out too now."

I assume that Percy did it for him because I fell asleep yet again to the sounds of aching pain. I understand that Reece's must have hurt a thousand times worse, because it was badly infected.

~

"Well, you were passed out for about three whole days. I ran non-stop with you hanging over my shoulder, but it's weird because I haven't seen any of Them since you were shot. It's almost like they stopped following us." Reece explains. "I finally made it here just last night and saw this tent."

He pauses before continuing, "at first I just suspected that Percy was one of them, so I did what you said and scared him."

Percy laughs, "yeah something like that! Ha ha ha, you nearly killed me!"

"Not really!" Reece tells me, trying to get himself on my side, "the gun mearly looked as it was aimed at your head, but really it was aimed behind you. Plus also, I had to fire it because that is the only way I would know that you were truly afraid."

I fake a little laugh at them, trying to stay positive, but truthfully, I think I'm going to die. I have not had any water in three days, my only liquid is the juice from an apple in which I devoured. My back is soar and the blood on my shirt feels frozen in the beach air. My teeth are discusting and my hair is one giant knot. My old make-up from that last day at school is still on my face, but it's mostly blended in with dirt and grime.

Reece and Percy continue to argue back and forth, but I tune them out. I stare hipnotically at Percy's tattoo, a plaque and inside it says M P D with each letter split into three divisions of the plaque.

I remember when he first got it, only about one month ago on his 18th birthday. The 'M' is for Mom, 'P' for Percy, and 'D' for Dad. I remember Reece telling me about how his parents are a pair of selfish jack asses who only fight all of the time. Hence the separations with himself trapped in the middle and them all struck in one enclosed area.

"Guys, can we track down some fresh water now please?" I ask.

"I will go, you two need to rest your open wounds." Percy starts, "I will be back soon, there are some houses not too far from here." he says as he grabs his knife and the empty bottles and head out.

After he is gone it is silent for a couple of moments before Reece says startling me, "wait a minute! Track, they are tracking us! Quinn, these are trackers not bulletes, thats why they knew we were in the skyscraper when they looked on their crazy phone thingy!"

"Oh my God, it all makes sence now how they kept showing up around us, but how come they havn't come to get us here?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is that we have to get rid of these to set Them on the wrong path."